A Notable Sculptor: Alfred Drury, A.R.A.

A. Lys Baldry

When the time comes for the compilation of
a detailed history of the progress of British
sculpture during the nineteenth century, a special
chapter will have to be devoted to the part played
by the famous French sculptor,
Dalou, in the development in this
country of the art of which he
was so distinguished an exponent.
He came to us some thirty years
ago, as so many of his countrymen have at various times, to
escape the consequences of his
over-strenuous participation in
political agitations, and the opportunity of his presence here was
seized upon by our more enlightened leaders in art education
as one which could be most advantageously turned to account.
Soon after his arrival in England
he was appointed teacher of
modelling in the National Art
Training School at South Kensington, on the initiative of Sir
Edward Poynter, who was then
the head of that institution; and
his services as an adviser were
also secured by other art schools.
Indeed, he became at once a very
active worker in the field of art
education, a worker, who, by both
precept and example, was able to
exercise an immense influence
over a large number of students,
and to direct in a very effective
manner their training in the particular form of practice on which,
as a consummate master, he was
peculiarly able to speak with
authority.

What was the effect of the
intervention of a man of his
vigorous personality and splendid
powers in the rather conventional
routine of English art teaching can
well be imagined. He awoke in his pupils an
amount of enthusiasm and a degree of keen
interest in their work far beyond anything that
the adherents to the older methods were capable
of exciting. There was not only a stimulating
novelty in his manner of presenting the dry
technical facts of the sculptor's craft, but there was,
as well, in his belief in the mission and purpose of
sculpture a firmness of conviction that was
eminently satisfying to youthful aspirants who were
seeking the right direction for the future expression
of their own ideas. They found themselves, for
once, in the closest association with a master mind,
in contact with an individuality which was unlike
any to which they had hitherto been accustomed;
and they were taught to see the traditions of their
art in a new light.

As a consequence there came quickly into existence a group of young students of sculpture who,
under Dalou's direction, began to show a high
sense of artistic responsibility and a firm grasp of
executive essentials. Inspired by his example and
guided by his instruction, these students brought
into British art a fresh note, of which the significance could not be mistaken. As years have
gone by they have one by one risen to deserved
prominence in their profession, and upon the
teaching which they received from the great Frenchman they have built up a notable amount of sterling
achievement which has done much to raise the
repute of the sculpture of this country all over the
world. Each one of them has developed a manner
personal to himself; Dalou's training did not produce merely a school of copyists, nor did it lead to
unintelligent repetition of certain processes of execution which he prescribed. He sought rather to
induce each of his pupils to think out the problems
of his art with real independence, and to realise
how the vital principles which underlie all memorable accomplishment could best be applied. That
he succeeded is evident enough to us to-day, for
we can refer to the work which these men have
been doing for nearly a quarter of a century, and
we can see in it how appropriately each one has
applied the master's precepts.

One of the most distinguished members of this
group is Mr. Alfred Drury, who had a longer and
in many ways a more definite association with
Dalou than any of the other students who were
brought under the great Frenchman's influence.
Mr. Drury at the time of Dalou's advent in England
was working in the South Kensington school. He
had come there on the advice of Mr. Thomas
Brock, late in the seventies, to continue the artistic
training which he had commenced some time previously in the Oxford School of Art; and he had
even then fixed upon sculpture as his particular
subject. This decision was, no doubt, due in great
measure to the inspiration of his surroundings at
Oxford: to the stimulating of his aesthetic inclinations by the atmosphere of a place full of splendid
examples of architectural design; but the more
immediate cause was his study of the collection of
works by Sir Francis Chantrey in the University
Galleries. With this collection he became familiar
very early in his life, while he was engaged as a
choir-boy at New College, and it seems to have
aroused in him an ambition which grew steadily
stronger as years went on. That he had not mistaken his vocation was
sufficiently proved by his career at South Kensington.
He had not long been there before he was
recognised as one of the most promising and
indefatigable students in the school and as a man
for whom a brilliant future could be safely
prophesied. His progress was punctuated by many
successes; he took the highest award in the
National Competition three years running and he
gained a number of other prizes during the period
of his studentship. From Dalou, who was quick
to perceive the reality of his enthusiasm and the
greatness of his capacities, he received a full
measure of attention, and he knew well how to
profit by the hints of a master who was ready to
give him just that thorough drilling he desired in
both the refinements and the fundamental principles
of the art in which it was his intention to excel.

So convinced was he of the importance of his
fortunate association with Dalou, and so eager was
he to continue it as long as possible, that when his
master returned to France he went with him as an
assistant and remained for four years in Paris
working in Dalou's studio and helping him in the
carrying out of some of his most ambitious
creations. In this way Mr. Drury secured a wider
and more practical experience than mere school
training could possibly have given him, and he had
the special advantage of commencing his actual
career as a worker under the supervision of the
same accomplished craftsman who had directed the
whole course of his earlier study. He escaped that
intermediate period between the routine work of
the school and the blossoming out into independent
production, a period that to many young artists is
a dangerous one because in the first emancipation
from the dictation of his teacher the inexperienced
practitioner is about to attempt flights which are
impossible to him and to become disheartened by
failures which had he known himself better he
would have seen to be inevitable. Many men
have wrecked a promising career by extravagance
of effort in their first few years of independence,
and others have seriously delayed their efficient
progress by wasting their youthful energies upon
ill-considered strivings to achieve impossibilities it shows no deficiency of restraint and no tendency which in their maturity they would have had the towards the extravagance of manner which an artist discretion to avoid.

But Mr. Drury fortunately escaped all these temptations. Instead of being thrown on his own resources before he was sure of himself he was
privileged to serve an apprenticeship in a studio where some of the greatest examples of modern sculpture were being brought to completion. Dalou
at that time was occupied with several of the works on which his reputation most securely rests &mdash things like his great group The Triumph of the Republic and the Mirabeau relief &mdash and his young assistant was able to
take an actual part in the shaping of
these evidences of his master's
genius. That all this implied a great
deal of strenuous labour is obvious
enough, but labour of this kind
accustomed him to the rough side of
his profession and taught him what
to expect if he was to put his own
ambitious conceptions later on into
a shape that would be impressive.His conspicuous success in recent
years with works on a large scale, and
constructively of an exacting order,
is assuredly due in no small degree
to the thorough experience which
he obtained at this early stage of the
mechanism of a craft which makes
very considerable demands upon
the physical powers of the men
who follow it, as well as upon their
inventive ingenuity.

His first appearance as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy was
made in 1885, when he showed there
a group, The Triumph of Silenus,
which he had executed during his spare moments at Paris. This
group, which is half life-size, bears very evidently the stamp of Dalou's influence, but it is by no means lacking in the more personal qualities of style and method which have since been developed so distinctively
in Mr. Drury's maturer productions. It has a certain richness of treatment which is unusual in the work of English sculptors, a robustness of
sentiment and an opulence of form which suggest the youthful exuberance of the designer, but technically it shows no deficiency of restraint and no tendency
towards the extravagance of manner which an artist
less soundly trained might have displayed in rendering a subject so susceptible of exaggeration.
The material he chose for The Triumph of Silenus, was terra-cotta, one which presents some exceptional difificulties in management and needs a particular
type of technical experience. But these difficulties, as the success of his work proves, he overcame quite efficiently, and he mastered then a medium which
which has since served him usefully in the execution of
many important pieces of decorative sculpture.

The year of his appearance at the
Academy saw also the completion of his
term of work and study in Paris. He
came back to London and for a while was
engaged as one of the large staff of
assistants in the studio of Sir Edgar
Boehm. But this was only a kind of
interlude in his career, a temporary expedient for bridging over the intermediate
time between his return and the establishing of his reputation as a sculptor to
whom important commissions could safely
be entrusted. He had not long to wait
for the full recognition of his claims, and
step by step he has advanced until now
he is regarded as one of the chief leaders
of a movement which has brought almost
unprecedented prosperity to the profession
which he follows.

Meanwhile he took care to make the
customary appeals for attention by sending
works, always interesting and often ambitious, to the periodical exhibitions. In
1886 he had at the Academy two terracotta busts, Fred. Isham, Esq., and James
Campbell, Esq.; in 1887 a bust of George
Cowell, Esq. and in 1888 a statuette,
The Genius of Sculpture, and an ideal
bust, Penseroso. In 1889 he exhibited
three things, a bust of Madame Nordica,
another of Solomon S. Cohen, Esq., which
is now in the Westminster Town Hall,
and a terra-cotta group, The First Reflection, which nine years later he sent to the
Dresden Exhibition and sold to Queen
Carola of Saxony. Another terra-cotta
group. The Evening Prayer, appeared at
Burlington House in 1890, and was
bought for the Manchester Corporation
Gallery; and in three following years
he was represented by life-sized statues, Echo,
Harmony, and Circe, and in 1892 and 1893 by
pictures as well, two oil paintings with the titles
He loves me, he loves me not, and Daffodils.

Left: Three views of Circe by Alfred Drury, RA. Park Square, Leeds. Bronze. Middle: One of several versions of Griselda. Right: The marble version of The Age of Innocence; Drury also produced it in bronze. [Click on thumbnails for larger images.]

His
principal work in 1894 was the Circe statue in
bronze &mdash he had shown it the year before in
plaster &mdash and with it he sent a bronze head of
St. Agnes. Both these were acquired by the Leeds
Corporation for the City Art Gallery. An ambitious
piece of sculpture, a large relief. The Sacrifice of Isaac,
followed in 1895; and in 1896 and 1897 two delightful ideal busts, Griselda and The Age of Innocence,
the first of which was bought by the Council of the
Royal Academy for the Chantrey Fund Collection.

Left three: Joseph Priestly as illustrated in Baldry's article and as cast in bronze. Middle three: Eve (or Evening) as illustrated in the 1906 studio and as installed in Leeds. Right: The Age of Innocence; . [Click on thumbnails for larger images.]

Special mention must be made of one of his
contributions to the 1898 Academy, for it was an
important example of his work in decorative sculpture, or rather in sculpture which was to be applied
to decorative purposes. This was the colossal
female figure Eve, one of a series of electric light
standards to be erected in the city square at Leeds
as part of the scheme of decoration which has
been carried out there with such marked success.
Two more pieces of sculpture for the same place
were exhibited in the following year &mdash an elaborately
ornate and finely proportioned Base and Column
for Electric light and a statue of Joseph Priestley.
Before the next exhibition came Mr. Drury had
been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy,
a distinction he had well earned. His admission
to the ranks of the Academy made, however, no
difference in the character of the works which he
continued to show there. He still kept to comparatively small things, and used his privileges
with commendable moderation.

Left: The Little Duchess as illustrated in Baldry's article. It also exists in bronze. Middle: Queen Victoria). Right: Bust of His Majesty King Edward VII. [Click on thumbnails for larger images.]

In 1900 he
showed only a bronze bust, The Prophetess of Fate,
and a small marble relief, The Little Duchess; in
1901, three busts of Mrs. John Maddocks, Alexander McLeod, Esq., and The Hon. Sir John Alexander Cockburn, K.C.M.G.: in 1902, portrait
busts of T. B. Wood, Esq., and Professor Arthur
Schuster, an ideal bust in marble, Innocence, and a model for the Queen Victoria memorial at Bradford; in 1903, a bust of the King for the Town Hall at Warrington, and another of The late Sir William [], K.C.B.; in 1904 a
bust of Lord Masham, a silver plaquette [Grade?] and
a bold and effective Keystone for the Building of the Royal London Friendly Society; and last year a bust of The late Dr. John Hopkinson, a
bronze head, The Spirit of
Night, a Study for the Statue
of St. George, the head of a full-length figure designed
for erection at Clifton College, and a panel symbolical
of The Fine Arts for the pedestal of the Queen Victoria Memorial at Wellington, New Zealand.

Left: Keystone for the Building of the Royal London Friendly Society. Middle: Study for the Head of Saint George).
Right: The Fine Arts.
[Click on thumbnails for larger images.]

Besides these Academy
contributions there have
been at other galleries many
things which can be counted
among his greater successes.
At the New Gallery he has
been represented continuously since the first exhibition there, and always by
work which has done him
justice &mdash for instance, by
such memorable efforts as
the Gipsy Maiden (1889),
Inspiration, and Guido
(1890), and the bronze
relief My Queen (1896).

Even as an exhibiting artist society's offices,
he has shown a great amount of industry and has
been responsible for quite a large series of productions which have a right to be remembered. The
quality of his work has always been excellent, and
as his powers have ripened the beauty and dignity
of his style have become more evident, and the
fertility of his invention has been displayed more
and more persuasively.

And yet what he has exhibited is by no means
the greater part of what he has done. Indeed, it
would be almost true to say that the bulk of his
exhibition pieces have been executed in the spare
moments of an exceptionally busy career. For a
long while past his studio has been full of big
things, memorials, decorative objects on a large
scale like the Leeds lamp standards, and vast
groups of sculpture destined to occupy prominent
positions in buildings the architectural importance
of which has made necessary the provision of
special ornamental features. In the decorative
direction he has found ample occupation for his
rare faculties as a designer and for his exceptional
skill in dealing with sculptured ornament that has
to take its right place in association with architecture. He has an admirably correct instinct for
what is needed to make the alliance between the
sculptor and the architect of advantage to both,
and to the recognition of this instinct has been due
the steady and still increasing demand for his
services. Moreover, he is known to have an expert
knowledge of the way in which different materials
should be handled &mdash his early insight into the
somewhat complicated technicalities of terra-cotta
modelling, for instance, has been of great value to
him &mdash and the architect naturally feels confidence
in the sculptor who can vary his methods to meet
particular exigencies.

Quite a long time has elapsed since he produced
his first notable effort in architectural sculpture, a
set of terra-cotta spandrils with figures in high relief
for the front of a coach-builder's establishment in
the Hammersmith Road, and it is some eight years
since he executed the much-praised series of
allegorical terminal figures, representing The
Months, for the terrace of a garden in the West
of England. More recently he has done much
more work of the same type, and always with the
happiest combination of sterling originality and
dignified taste. Perfunctoriness or careless concession to stock conventions have never marred his
achievement; there is nothing in the series of his
decorative essays which his admirers could regret
or condemn as unworthy of him. Even when the
work in hand may have seemed comparatively
unimportant he has kept consistently to a really
high standard, and has done his best with what
other men, less capable or less con.scientious, might
have despised as indifferent opportunities. Now
he is reaping his reward for all his devotion to the
higher principles of his art, for he has gained a real
mastery over the vital essentials of the branch of
decoration in which he finds his best chances, and
when he is confronted with a great possibility he
does not fail to profit by it to the utmost.

Left: Truth and Justice as illustrated in Baldry's article. Right: The Peace Group. [Click on thumbnails for larger images and recent photographs.]

Nothing shows this better than the series of colossal groups of figures which he has just completed for the new War Office building in Whitehall.
Here, indeed, he has had an opportunity that would have been hailed with enthusiasm by one of the great mediaeval sculptors, an opportunity which
would induce the man with a high sense of responsibility to put forth his fullest energies to attain a monumental result that future generations would
acclaim as the achievement of a master. Mr. Drury, as might have been expected, has risen to the occasion and has gone further than he ever has
before both in thought and practice. He has, with a discretion that cannot be too heartily commended, avoided the merely obvious without falling
into the mistake of being too abstruse in his symbolism. The figures tell their story frankly enough, but the story they have to tell is no
triviality, but something with dramatic force and a convincing moral. The dignity of the artist's conception is as impressive as the strength with which
he has attacked the technical problems presented by a piece of work so complicated and so exacting in its demands upon his knowledge of construction
and his capacity for overcoming mechanical difficulties. Nowhere can he be said to have failed to show himself equal to a task which was calculated
to test him severely, and his success is all the greater because it has been attained under conditions which might well have excused many deficiencies.

One thing that is very evident in these War Office groups is the manner in which he has given free rein to his imagination in selecting the subjects
which the figures have been designed to illustrate. For this type of symbolical sculpture there are rules prescribed by custom and long usage, fixed conventions
which are not infrequently held to be good enough to guide the modern
worker, simply because they have served his predecessors for many
generations. He is supposed to confine himself to recognised formalities,
and in a large number of instances he is not, it must be admitted, any
too anxious to put himself to the trouble of seeking out new forms of
expression. For one thing, his clients who claim his services are quite disposed to be satisfied with the sort of work to which they are accustomed,
and ask only that the stock things he gives them should be executed with
sufficient skill. For another, the repetition of the old ideas, with, perhaps,
some slight modifications which will pass as new readings of the familiar
stories, is easy to manage, and imposes no tax upon his inventive capacities.
Only the conscientious artist who finds pleasure in thinking things out
for himself and rebels against stereotyped modes of expression would
exert himself to do for his own satisfaction what the people for whom at
the moment he is working do not specially demand of him.

But Mr. Drury happens to be a
conscientious artist, and a man with
ideas besides. So he has sought,
not with any wilful intention to be unlike everyone
else, but sincerely and in fulness of conviction,
to prove that departures from ancient tradition
can be made without straying into extravagance
or losing the monumental quality which should
be his special aim. He has avoided the theatrical
taint with memorable discretion, and yet he
has found in the subjects suggested by the purpose to which the building he has adorned will be
applied ample inspiration for sculpture which
embodies the vital points in the drama of Peace
and War. Each of the figures and each of the
groups signifies something that is nobly imagined
and finely thought out; each is an independent
and original conception; and yet each one takes
its proper place in the story which the whole series
sets forth, and takes it as rightly as the work itself
agrees with the architectural design

Indeed, this is, perhaps, the greatest merit of
Mr. Drury's achievement here : that in producing
magnificent sculpture he has not forgotten that the
object of his effort was to be the completing and
enhancing of a piece of well-proportioned and impressive architecture. He has sacrificed none of
his own individuality, none of his personal sentiment about his art, and certainly none of his
admirable vigour of technical practice; but he has
not forced his contribution to the general effectiveness of the building into an excessive prominence
which would be inartistic because it would imply
on his part a lack of a due sense of proportion.
His discretion as a designer is not more worthy of
praise than his strength of craftsmanship. The
large and certain modelling of the heads and limbs;
the breadth and firmness of the draperies, magnificent in their quality of massive light and shade,
and yet perfectly elegant and easy in their flow of
line; the rhythmical adjustment of forms and
masses &mdash all are imposing in their masculine power,
and yet all are restrained and kept in proper subjection by a sense of refinement and a love of
beauty which deserve no ordinary degree of commendation.

But, after all, Mr. Drury's success is but the
logical outcome of his use of his temperament
and his training. He has progressed stage by stage,
building always upon the knowledge which he has
steadily gathered in many directions, and using his
successive experiences to widen his view, and to
enlarge the scope of his activity. There has been
no turning back in his career, no slackening of
his determination to obtain a grasp of those vital
matters which count for so much in the equipment
of an artist. He has never worked simply for the
moment; whatever he has done has been invariably in the nature of a preparation for something later on. In this, his latest and, in
many respects, his most ambitious effort, we see
the result of years of consistent striving to realise
ideals which were implanted in his unusually receptive mind at the most receptive period of his life;
and we see, too, the development of capacities,
always great, which have been guided constantly
by an influence that has never waned. And even
more can we perceive what we are justified in
expecting in years to come from an artist who
already has attained such a mastery over his craft.